Posted by Diego Echeverri, US Army Veteran, co-founder of Bull and Moose


Editor's note: As 11/11 rolls around each year, we’re reminded of the veterans who selflessly serve our nation with great honor. We’re especially inspired by the veterans who return to civilian life to build successful small businesses — the engine of our economy. To celebrate those who serve our country in more ways than one, we sat down with vet-run companies to learn the stories behind their vision, the influence of the military on their business philosophy, and their advice for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Here, we hear from Diego Echeverri, US Army Veteran and co-founder of Bull and Moose, which provides luxury, quality neckwear at a disruptive and fair price point.

The military sometimes inspires and influences in unexpected ways. For me, the Army taught me the self-discipline and leadership skills that ultimately prepared me to start my own business — but that didn’t surprise me. What I didn’t expect was the way I began to adopt the military’s belief in the power of a physical impression and the importance of pride in one’s appearance. As ambassadors of our country, we represent our country physically in more ways than one and must look as sharp in our suits as we act in the field. And so, 13 years after enlisting in the aftermath of 9/11, and 10 years after I deployed to Afghanistan, I started Bull and Moose, a company that provides military-inspired, fashionable neckwear for men.

Fashion has actually taken quite a few cues from the military over the years: trenchcoats, blazers, military boots and bomber jackets are staples of historical military outfits and lynchpins of the classic, preppy American wardrobe. When I started Bull and Moose, I launched with a product that perfectly married my bond with the military and my passion for high quality clothing: a camouflage bow tie. Another one of our first pieces, the DC Metro pocket square, was inspired by the maps the military printed out on silk for infantrymen, which lasted far longer than the paper maps they used before. We just launched a new tie, the Sergeant, that’s built from the same 3M reflective yarn that was woven into the belts we wore for safety in the Army.

The military doesn’t just inspire our product design; it defines our company and brand and has been a part of our DNA from the start. We sponsor Got Your 6, a campaign that helps drive the conversation and public perception that veterans can be leaders and civic assets. We also donate a portion of our profits to fund micro loans on Kiva. We’re a for-profit, but I’m driven by the knowledge that the more we sell, the more we can give back to the veteran community.

Sometimes the best kind of support a vet needs is just another vet to talk to, and what’s great about vets in business is there’s a close-knit network where someone always has your back. We come back from the military with a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses, so navigating the entrepreneurial maze requires a lot of thinking, learning and changing. For some, the biggest challenge is shaking off the formality; for others, it’s adapting to ambiguity and navigating without a clear chain of command. At the same time, with vets, there’s no “can’t” — there’s always a way — and you learn that you’re capable of things you could never have imagined. Having other vets to talk to about those difficulties and successes — or just shipping or social media strategy — is huge.

Bull and Moose isn’t all about the military, and most of our products aren’t camo or built from 3M, but being a veteran and supporting other veterans is an undeniable part of our brand. I’m just as motivated to run a successful business as I am to help other vets and prove to the broader community that vets can do some amazing things. This generation in particular faces a daunting challenge: in addition to transitioning to a civilian world that doesn’t necessarily value their specific experience skills, they face the public perception that they’re inherently flawed. I know that’s not true, and I know how passionate and impactful they can be. And it’s my mission to ensure that vets are essential to society’s fabric as they are for our military.

Posted by Mark Rockefeller, former Air Force officer, co-founder and CEO of StreetShares

Editor's note: As 11/11 rolls around each year, we’re reminded of the veterans who selflessly serve our nation with great honor. We’re especially inspired by the veterans who return to civilian life to build successful small businesses — the engine of our economy. To celebrate those who serve our country in more ways than one, we talked to a few vet-run companies to learn the stories behind their vision, the influence of the military on their business philosophy, and their advice for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Here, we hear from Mark Rockefeller, former Air Force officer and co-founder and CEO of StreetShares, a socially-oriented online lending platform where investors compete to give loans to high-growth vet-owned and main street business.

Veterans today return from service to a country that bears little resemblance to the ticker tape parades and land of opportunity that characterized the end of World War II. With ready access to capital and local banks willing to lend money to former service people, nearly half of the vets from my grandparents’ generation went on to own or run a business, driving one of the most remarkable economic growth periods in recent US history. Now, with fewer regional banks and more red tape, large global banks base their lending decisions on little more than a FICO score. This makes it nearly impossible for vets, who have incredible skills but limited financial history, to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.

I had a front seat to our country’s most recent financial unraveling, which only worsened this situation. After nine years in the Air Force —including a stint as a Jag lawyer in Iraq — I joined a law firm that represented some of the creditors trying to get their money back from Lehman Brothers. I learned how bad mortgages started, moved hands, took on more risk, and ultimately wreaked havoc on our economy. I saw how businesses across the country lost their savings and were forced to shutter their doors, while new businesses couldn’t gather the capital to get off the ground.

I started StreetShares to breathe life back into the American dream for a new generation of veteran entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. As a vet who saw firsthand how hostile the economic climate can be for a young company, I want to help people access the capital they need to start their businesses. With StreetShares, businesses tell their stories and create pitches on our online platform, and investors compete to fund parts of that loan at rates they set themselves. That way, investors learn about the people behind the ideas and their loans are both financial and personal.

When I was stationed in Iraq with the Air Force, I worked on a project with a 24-year-old platoon leader whose responsibilities resembled those of a mayor — he ran an entire town’s public projects, security and education systems, and even started a community microloan program. While most people his age were dipping their toes in their first jobs out of school, he was running a small city. It’s guys like him that make me wonder, if they handle this kind of responsibility and lead in that kind of environment, imagine what they can do back in the US. And I want every one of them to have a shot at showing what they’re capable of, to pursue that dream.

There’s a battle for how this generation of vets is characterized, and my mission is to prove they’re our country’s future leaders. The US economy is looking for a catalyst, and I believe vets can be exactly that — they can fight the financial battle here at home just as they fight the military battle abroad.

Posted by Todd Connor, Operation Iraqi Freedom Navy veteran, CEO of The Bunker


Editor's note: As 11/11 rolls around each year, we’re reminded of the veterans who selflessly serve our nation with great honor. We’re especially inspired by the veterans who return to civilian life to build successful small businesses — the engine of our economy. To celebrate those who serve our country in more ways than one, we sat down with vet-run companies to learn the stories behind their vision, the influence of the military on their business philosophy, and their advice for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Here, we hear from Todd Connor, Operation Iraqi Freedom Navy veteran and current CEO of The Bunker, an incubator for veteran-owned technology companies.

Entrepreneurship is a commitment to solving problems, and I’ve committed to solving one that’s especially close to home for me: helping veterans start and grow businesses they believe in.

My own military journey began as a freshman at Northwestern University, when I joined the school’s ROTC program; four years later, I was commissioned as a Navy Officer and eventually served in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After returning to civilian life, I got my MBA, worked as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and started a few companies. While I loved the excitement of entrepreneurial life, I missed the purpose and community of the military. Then the idea for The Bunker took shape, and I finally found a way to marry my passion for entrepreneurship with my desire to work with vets.

The Bunker is an incubator for vet-owned technology startups and aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. We help them with strategic business decisions and plans, connect them with investors and mentors, and guide them through the unique regulations around running a certified veteran business. We just launched last month, and with support from the likes of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, the Tillman Foundation and 1871, we’re off to a solid start.

In many ways, military experience gives vets a skill set that naturally lends itself to entrepreneurship. They’re trained to be leaders in any situation. They put their mission first and don’t let uncertainty or obstacles get in the way. They have an unwavering work ethic and don’t give anything short of their best. Bringing vets with these skills together at The Bunker creates a powerful ecosystem of like-minded, ambitious entrepreneurs who share a common mindset and an incredible bond.

But military experience also creates some difficult challenges. When vets return to civilian life from the military, they’re so far removed from the startup space that they lack the access to execute on their vision — they don’t have the capital, mentors, investors or the networks to turn their idea into a company. The Bunker is their gateway to the entrepreneurship community. It opens the door to the larger startup world and the people, companies and resources that come with it. That’s one of our primary goals — to help them find the tools they need to be successful.

Vets and their businesses need to be embedded in mainstream society, too. That’s why The Bunker sits inside 1871, the epicenter of Chicago’s startup scene — so our entrepreneurs are as much a part of the city’s business hub as they are of the veteran community.

The Bunker is young, but we’re already growing our footprint. News of and excitement around The Bunker spread so quickly to vet groups nationwide that we’ve built a network of Bunker incubators in 7 cities across the US. The best part? I’ve met less than half of the folks leading the charge in those 7 cities, but because they’re all vets, I trust them to carry the Bunker vision forward — just as I trusted the guys next to me when I served in the Navy. That’s the kind of community that has each others’ backs.

Posted by Derek Herrera, Marine Special Operations Officer, CEO of RuckPack

Editor's note: As 11/11 rolls around each year, we’re reminded of the veterans who selflessly serve our nation with great honor. We’re especially inspired by the veterans who return to civilian life to build successful small businesses — the engine of our economy. To celebrate those who serve our country in more ways than one, we sat down with some vet-run companies to learn the stories behind their vision, the influence of the military on their business philosophy, and their advice for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Here, we hear from Derek Herrera, active duty Marine Special Operations Officer and CEO of RuckPack, a peak performance nutrition shot (you may also remember them from last year).

Two years ago, I was leading a Marines special operations team on patrol in Afghanistan when I was shot through the back by an enemy sniper and paralyzed from the chest down. I wanted to be in the military as long as I could physically serve, so when I suddenly lost that ability far earlier than I ever imagined, I was faced with a scary reality: I had to find something else that inspired the same passion and purpose that drove me in the Marines.

I returned to California and shifted my focus from physical service to physical rehab, but it didn’t take me long to realize the power of the military skillset in the business world. I’d learned to lead a team through chaos, to motivate and inspire the people around me despite the challenges ahead of us; I’d learned how to approach a mission by gathering as much information as possible and developing a well-informed strategy. In August of 2013, I enrolled in the Executive MBA program at UCLA, and this summer, took over the reins as CEO at RuckPack — a peak performance nutrition shot founded by a fellow Marine, Rob Dyer, who I met in Marine Corps Special Operations Command.

Leading RuckPack brings back the passion and purpose I worried I’d never find after my injury. Its mission is as challenging and exciting as those I experienced in the Marines — a mission where I get to lead a team of really incredible people I trust and respect, a mission that’s equal parts exhilarating and daunting. I also couldn’t be more proud to be at the helm of a company that wasn’t just born on the battlefield, but also believes in supporting veterans who return from it: we have a Veteran Distributor Program, which allows any veteran to sell and make a 10% commission on RuckPack products, and we give 10% of our profits to military charities. That kind of philosophy that motivates me.

As the CEO, I represent the company externally, but to me my role is that of team leader — more about serving the company and its employees and making sure their success always come before my own. In the military, officers don’t eat until all of their troops have eaten; as CEO, I live by by the same servant-leader philosophy. To me, getting the team to feel as invested in the company and cause as you are ultimately builds the collective trust, earns you respect and builds a strong community.

Growing the RuckPack team is one of my top priorities as CEO, and my approach to hiring is inextricably linked to my experience in special ops. I saw firsthand the potential and power in smart people who learn quickly and adapt to the situations (and challenges) at hand. My team was assigned to missions and projects they had very little prior knowledge about — anything from building a self-sufficient local police force in Afghanistan to mapping night patrol plans — so they had to teach themselves everything about their mission at the time in order to succeed. They knew to identify the problems, gather information, identify potential solutions and determine a detailed action plan. That’s exactly the kind of mindset I want working with me on RuckPack. Experience in the industry isn’t a bad thing, but for me, it’s not the driving force in my hiring decisions.

Leaving the military for civilian life can be scary: you go from knowing your mission and having the support of people you trust with your life to being surrounded by people you don’t know and who don’t have the shared military experience. But there’s so much untapped potential in these vets, in the leadership and management experience they carry with them that the civilian world can benefit from. That’s the other reason I’m so proud to be CEO of RuckPack — I want to show other people, from vets to civilians to employers, the power of the military skillset in business.

Posted by Joseph Kopser, Co-Founder and CEO at RideScout

Editor's note: Today, we hear from Joseph Kopser, Army Veteran, Bronze Star recipient as well as Co-Founder and CEO at RideScout, a mobile app that aims to streamline transportation by showing real-time information on public, private and social options in one single view. See what other companies that have gone Google have to say.

Several years ago, I was on active duty in the Army, serving as Special Assistant to Army 4-Star Chief of Staff General George W. Casey, Jr. at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. I lived less than 10 miles from my office and everyday I faced the question, “what’s the best way to get there?” I could take the bus, I could carpool, I could walk, and I could even take a taxi, but there wasn’t one service that helped me pick my best option for that particular day. Furthermore, I saw so many people, likely going to the same place as me, with four empty seats in their vehicles.

My frustrations spurred a discussion with a few Army buddies of mine, and in 2011, Craig Cummings and I decided to do something about it. Together we launched RideScout, a mobile app that helps people figure out the fastest and most cost-efficient way to get from one place to another. It takes real-time information and schedules on cabs, buses, trains, ride shares, and emerging services like car2go and Sidecar and pulls it into Google Maps so people can easily compare the options. Not only does RideScout help people get where they need to be faster, but it also reduces the number of cars on the road, increasing transportation efficiency and reducing harm to our planet.

Soon after RideScout got off the ground, I moved to Austin to teach leadership and military strategy at the University of Texas. Craig and I realized we needed a platform to help us collaborate and build the company collectively, despite the physical distance between us. We chose Google Apps from the get-go because its cloud-based platform allowed us to do exactly that. Now, RideScout has employees in Austin, D.C., and contractors in other cities working all hours spread across different time zones. We also use a lot of tablets and portable laptops, so storing everything in the cloud and being able to access it — regardless of our device — is essential.

Google Docs has been a crucial tool for the team, especially the product developers as we’ve gone through our app development iterations. We hold dozens of quick brainstorm sessions every week to go over product requirements and designs, and with Docs we can stay in sync throughout the process because we’re all looking at the same information at the same time. As we matured, we started seeing the same kind of collaboration happen in Presentations, and even with Drawings — they all became living documents with people commenting and editing simultaneously. I think of Docs and Spreadsheets as whiteboards, where RideScout employees can throw out ideas and iterate on them as a team in real time.

Security also was an important consideration for us. We knew we wanted a cloud solution from the beginning, and Google Apps is a platform we could trust to keep our information safe. Because we don’t have to maintain our own servers, it’s just one less thing we have to worry about. And as a startup, taking something off your list of things to worry about is fantastic.

RideScout is scaling quickly. In July we had seven employees and we’ve more than doubled since then. The ability to add a new employee to the system in five minutes or less is extremely important when we’re working on limited resources and stretched to the max to get the product to market. With Apps we’ve got a platform that scales with us, so as we grow and expand to new markets, our employees can worry less about the process of sharing work and focus more on building a great product.

Posted by Jonathan Hudgins, Co-Founder and CEO, Flying Scarfs

Editor's note: This Veterans Day, we’re celebrating our veteran’s contributions and successes as entrepreneurs, by highlighting a handful of the 3.7 million businesses run by veterans in the U.S. Today’s guest blogger is Jonathan Hudgins, Co-Founder and CEO of Flying Scarfs, an enterprise that empowers partners in developing countries to flourish in the global economy.

When I deployed to Afghanistan with the 335th Fighter Squadron in the summer of 2011, I didn’t expect to return with an idea for a nonprofit, much less a plan for making it a reality within months of getting home. But that’s exactly what happened over the 6 month stint. During my time in Afghanistan, I spent days exploring the local Bagram bazaar with three of my fellow Air Force Officers and future co-founders, Joseph Stenger, Joshua Carroll and Ryan Bodenheimer. We befriended a merchant who was selling scarves made by widows in the area, then giving the proceeds back to the women so they could educate and support themselves. These women typically didn’t have much access to capital or jobs, so this gave them some financial stability — and with, a stronger political voice.

Flying Scarfs Team

As our deployment came to an end, we realized there was an opportunity to stay connected with and support the Bagram community by selling their scarves back in the U.S. and sending the proceeds back to the women who made them. By sharing their creations with a broader audience, we could stay connected with the community while also helping the artisans achieve economic success and stability. That’s how Flying Scarfs got started. We had the idea, the business plan, the connections in Afghanistan, and even a retail store, my parents’ shop in North Carolina, to sell our first batch of scarves — the next step was finding a tool to connect the dots. Google Apps was our answer from day one: we could appear professional right off the bat with our @flyingscarfs.com email, and with the cloud-based storage and email, we didn’t even need an office. That was essential at the time, since Joey, Josh and Ryan were still on active duty and we were all in different locations. With Google Apps, we could still stay connected and up to speed no matter where we were.

Two years later, we’re grown up and are even more spread out, but with Google Apps, we’re always on the same page, whether it’s on Gmail, Docs or Spreadsheets. Our CFO, for example, keeps a master financial spreadsheet that gives the rest of the team visibility into our expenditures, costs, sales and margins. We review it each quarter, but if an odd charge shows up at any point, he can ping us and ask if we know where it came from. We can just add details to the Notes column in the spreadsheet, and voila, everyone else knows where it came from.

Hangouts have become an equally integral part in keeping the team up-to-date on the latest updates and developments, both on a regular basis and for ad hoc meetings. When ABC World News published a piece about us in August, for example, our daily website traffic suddenly increased by 100 times our average and our order requests from our online store shot up. We were all over the place — our CFO was in Chicago, Ryan was in Idaho, Josh was in DC, and the rest of us were in North Carolina — but by jumping on a Hangout, we were able to outline a clear plan for handling the sudden activity. A phone call doesn’t always do the trick when you’re trying to replicate the kind of brainstorming you’re able to do when you’re together in a room, while a Hangout was exactly what we needed to plan our immediate next steps.

Using Google Apps lets us to focus more on what matters to us: empowering artisans across the world. And since we’re not tied to a single desktop computer or physical office, we’ve even been able to add new partners in Kenya and Haiti and seamlessly start selling their products back in the U.S. Because that’s what it’s all about - sharing the beautiful work of craftspeople with a wider audience, so they can support themselves economically. That’s what we believe in.

Posted by Derek Bennett, former Army Captain and Chief of Staff at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

Editor's note: This Veterans Day, we’re celebrating our veteran’s contributions and successes as entrepreneurs, by highlighting a handful of the 3.7 million businesses run by veterans in the U.S. Today, we hear from Derek Bennett, former Army Captain and Chief of Staff at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).

When Paul Rieckhoff returned to the U.S. after serving in Iraq as an Army First Lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader, he couldn’t help but notice two things: how difficult the return to civilian life could be, and how important it was for veterans to join the national dialogue in the media and on the ground. Starting IAVA was his way of doing something about it - and it has accomplished quite a bit since its inception in 2004. IAVA is the country's first and largest organization dedicated to supporting and representing new veterans and their families, with nearly 300,000 members and supporters. And we’re as dedicated as ever to our original mission: helping veterans understand the benefits available to them, ensuring their voices are heard in mainstream media, and giving them a safe community to ask questions and get advice from fellow vets.

A lot of amazing people have helped us get where we are now - a lot of selfless veterans, generous civilians and dedicated employees. But we also couldn’t have done it without some help from technology like Google Apps. We’re a mobile company: we have offices in New York and Washington, D.C., but often travel or work from home, and our volunteers come from all over the country, so we have a pretty flexible work policy. Since Apps allows us to access our email and documents from anywhere, whether on our laptops at home or the mobile Drive app on our tablets, our teams can get their work done whenever and wherever they need.

Google Spreadsheets have completely revolutionized our volunteer signup process at recruitment events. Instead of having people sign a piece of paper, entering their names on a spreadsheet, and emailing the new version around, we have our team take tablets into the field and enter information directly into a Google spreadsheet. That way, we know everything is up-to-date at any given moment, not to mention we save time and minimize the risk of typos or forgotten updates.

While Spreadsheets help us bring in new volunteers more efficiently, Hangouts make it possible to build camaraderie between our team and those volunteers. We recently launched Squad Leaders, a program where IAVA ambassadors host barbeques, set up networking events and provide professional mentorship for vets in their local communities. We want to make sure our Squad Leaders feel as connected to the core IAVA team as they do with the vets in their neighborhoods, and Hangouts help make that happen. We use them to conduct Squad Leader training sessions and to run regular check-ins, so our ambassadors feel personal connections with a program that’s otherwise geographically spread out.

Veterans are service leaders, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, parents and politicians. IAVA’s mission is to make sure they’re all those things and everything else they want to be - that they feel fully supported and represented as citizens. Our veterans have already committed so much to their country by they time they return home that they should feel empowered to accomplish even more in the years ahead. With 2.6 million veterans, it’s no easy feat, but with the help of a growing team of employees and supporters, I think we’re off to a pretty good start.

Posted by Ben Budde, Google Apps for Business Sales Manager, former Marine

Like a lot of veterans, my decision to serve was inspired in part by my family. In my case, it was my grandmother.

I grew up in California, and after graduating high school, my grandmother took me on a trip to Kenya to see a different world (she was a very cool grandma). We landed in Nairobi on August 7th, 1998 — the same day the U.S. Embassy was bombed. We felt compelled to go to the site and try to help. Later, we learned that more than 200 people had died and thousands were injured from the attack. I felt terrible for those impacted, but I was also inspired by what I saw: in the midst of the destruction and shock, the Marines established control over the situation. They acted with assurance and purpose. That’s when I knew I needed to be a Marine.

I went to the University of Colorado, Boulder on a ROTC scholarship and joined the Marine Corps the day I graduated. I deployed twice to Iraq, where I served with some of the bravest men and women. Then, 9 years after the day I knew I wanted to be a Marine, I returned home. I did what many vets do when they return to civilian life — I wrote out my resume and went on a job search. There were a lot of great companies looking to hire veterans, but I was drawn straight to Google, because I saw they had an inspiring mission and the same strong sense of purpose that we had in the military. That direction appealed to a Marine like me. I started as a temp in fraud protection and now manage a sales team focused on driving adoption of Google Apps for Business.

According to the latest Census data, veterans run 3.7M businesses in the U.S. and are 45% more likely to start a business than the average American. The numbers speak for themselves, but personally, I think vets are such successful entrepreneurs because they value teamwork, demonstrate leadership and have a high tolerance for stress.

I also believe Google Apps is a critical tool for veterans (or anyone) starting or running a business, because it lets them focus on their ideas and their companies, rather than worrying about the technology behind it all. One of my favorite parts of the job is getting the chance to talk to veterans about launching their businesses with Google tools, like I did at a Google for Entrepreneurs workshop for veterans last summer.

This week, we’re highlighting a handful of veteran owned businesses that use Apps to communicate and collaborate with partners all over the world. These are just a small sampling of the interesting and innovative veteran owned businesses out there, with more starting each day.

Finally, for those that serve, for veterans and their families who have answered the call of duty and know it as a way of life, I am forever indebted to you and I salute you on this Veterans Day.

Posted by Rob Dyer, Marine Corps Aviation Officer and Founder and CEO of RuckPack

Editor's note: This Veterans Day, we’re celebrating our veterans' contributions and successes as entrepreneurs, by highlighting a handful of the 3.7 million businesses run by veterans in the U.S. Today, we hear from Rob Dyer, active duty Marine Corps Aviation Officer and Founder and CEO of RuckPack, a peak performance nutrition shot.

The idea for RuckPack was born while I was deployed to Afghanistan with Marine Special Operations Command. While at camp we’d talk about how great it would be to start a company together when we got home — we could keep the gang together and hire other veterans to build up the team. We even came up with a business idea: a nutrition shot with all the vitamins and minerals to keep guys in our position healthy and focused through the long, tough missions. And before we knew it, we had the early makings of RuckPack.

We tried to get the company up and running when we got back from Afghanistan, but it was hard with everyone spread out all over the country. I told a Marine buddy of mine about the business plan and some of the challenges I was facing. He told me the first step to getting the company off the ground was to start using Google Apps for Business. The majority of our team is still on active duty, myself included, but wherever we are, we're able to stay connected using Google Apps. That's helped us release two flavors of our nutrition shot that are being sold at stores and shipped to soldiers abroad.

Google Apps is the technological backbone to RuckPack — it’s what keeps our 12-person, multi-million dollar virtual operation running without an office. Hangouts keep us connected, whether it’s a conversation about a website change or a celebration of a big sale with a retail distributor. After spending day and night with these guys in the military, seeing their faces on a Hangout makes it feel like we’ve still got the gang together.

Google Docs and Drive help us keep track of and centralize our business plans and documents. Any time we get on a call with an investor, think of a topic for a blog post, or request content changes to the website, we open a Doc and share it with the appropriate people. That way, we can all keep tabs on our work, whether we’re checking in from Japan, where one of our teammates is stationed, or from Annapolis, where I live and teach at the Naval Academy.

Today, we launched our Veteran Distributor Program (VDP), which allows any U.S. veteran to join our sales force and receive a commission on any RuckPack product they sell. Our team knew from the start that we wanted to help fellow veterans; this was our way of expanding it beyond the core team. The concept of the VDP was launched and refined in a Google Doc, with each person on the team contributing with additions and comments along the way. We don’t have to be in a room together to get a great idea off the ground. We just needed a shared Google doc.

There's nothing like the bond I felt with the guys I was deployed with. There was a sense of team and trust among us that we all missed when we got back home. What's great about RuckPack is that we’ve been able to revive that same bond and camaraderie. Google Apps has helped us keep that sense of working towards a common goal — only now that goal is building a great business that helps the guys still out there serving our country.